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Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Soul of the Light Series.

Just a little over a month from now, Circle of Light, the last book in the Light Series will be released, and I am so amazed that I managed to write a damned trilogy. Seriously.

Then again...I don't feel like I have written it. Maybe that was the trick. All I remember is being pulled along in a fast moving tide of happiness. It really wrote itself.

When I first started writing the series, with Seers of Light, I remember telling myself to write one page a day. I committed myself to that, saying that after a year I'd have 365 pages...a whole book, practically. I could surely handle that.

About fifty pages deep I lost the ability to stop writing. Fifty pages deep (around the time William Maddox really started making his presence known, I was IN.)

And why?

Because I understood what the heart of this series was. Okay, I didn't realize I was writing something odd or unconventional, as I'd learn from readers and reviewers later. And, to be honest, most of the reading I'd done in my life was not in the paranormal genre. But I knew what I wanted to express to people as I wrote. I knew how I felt about life, and that was bound to reflect in the series. I just hoped readers would relate.

So, what exactly is the series really about, then? If you'd read the first two books then you might very well have an inkling of the answer already--that it's not just a couple of loves stories. But if you haven't, the whole idea is basically two-fold.

For one, how do we view love? Falling in love? Ourselves in love? What do we look for in a man/woman? And do we really need what we want? Or do we want what we need? To figure out what I mean, and in as non-spoilerish a way as possible, I'll cite the main characters in the series as explanation without mentioning outcomes.

On one hand, you have a man named Christian Wright.

Christian is a bit of a traditionalist. He's a real type A hero, a swoop in and save you kind of guy. Boyish good looks, strong build, a killer accent, a tongue in cheek egotistical charm...for all intents and purposes he's Mr. Right...or Mr. Wright, as it turns out. (That wasn't intentional, by the way.) Christian is a talented Sentient Combatant. He's got skills---but he's also got serious flaws. Not that he's a bad person, but he's a person. He's as real as I could make him in a genre that seems to idealize the alpha male. And though there are days when I fear that this is not what readers want, the rest of the time I know better. Readers want whatever they want. And if that's what I've written, then yay for me. If not, I'll get over it. A male character can show realistic flaws, he can be messed up and still desirable. I believe it firmly now. I am often told readers don't want realism in writing. But I don't buy that. I think what they don't want... is hopelessness.

Male # two is William Maddox.

If you're looking for a protective, stand between you and everything dangerous, a bit on the possessive side kind of guy, William Maddox would not seem the ideal match for you. I should know. I was a fan of the alpha male figures myself, and if someone had told me I'd end up creating a (heroic? read and see) character who was the opposite of the stereotype and made me rethink everything I thought a "desirable" man could be, I'd have given them a few doubtful looks.

Luckily, I didn't really create William Maddox. He just decided to write himself as he was, and because he was so good at it, I just let him do what he wanted. A quiet presence, a smirk, a put-you-in-your-place remark, the hell of a time he gave my main female in Seers and I was sold on this new kind of male.

And speaking of females in Seers... the lady in question is Lillian Hunt, newbie Empath and Path Crosser extraordinaire. She's a lot like Christian, actually. She's all black and white about things. And while she is very brave and has her heart in the right place, she, like Christian, is her own kind of flawed and has some character growth to do from start to finish. Whether she lives to pull it off is another thing, but one thing is clear. We tend to think that we know what we want and need in a lover, and we're so often wrong, which takes a good bit of pride swallowing to recognize.

Nicole Abbot, from Whisper of Light (book 2), is basically Lily's opposite. Again, Nicole's got issues. She's imperfect, both physically and emotionally, (which is the case for Lily, as well, since I don't believe in creating physically "perfect" women in books.) Nicole just doesn't "seem" to have the presence to hold her own with a strong male figure. But you know what? Labels are for schmucks. Assumptions are too. To hell with them. Breaks molds, people. Life is full of paradoxes.

Love in the Light Series Trilogy is complicated, its messy and it's unpredictable. Some of it is romantic and a lot of it is otherwise, and more than anything, I'm crossing my fingers that it causes people to look at what they wanted, at the way they see others, and ask, "What kind of person would compliment my best self? What would make me strongest?" and go for that.

The second point of the series, the artery that runs through all three books, is that life has purpose and that everything comes full circle when we have faith in our own good and act bravely. (Circle of Light. You got it.)

The series is a bow to destiny. Book one has emotional ties to book two, and both are essential to book three, just the same as our lives are connected, as experiences and acts of courage and cowardice all lead up to where we are, who we are, and who we are with when the shit gets real. We make decisions and think they are done and over, but the ripples of our actions are miraculous and long-lasting. We can't imagine, just by doing something unselfish or by going after a dream, how it will impact so many lives down the line. Everything really does come full circle, I feel it in my bones. And I wrote it for others to feel, too.

So read the trilogy. Find your own strength, whatever it truly is, and think about what you really need out of this existence. Then tell me about it.